Witnessing Gwangju: A Memoir

by Paul Courtright

As a young Peace Corps volunteer, working with leprosy patients in rural South Korea in 1980, Paul Courtright got caught in the middle of a brutal military suppression in Gwangju. Over a span of 13 days, he witnessed the unfolding Gwangju Uprising, during which he was trapped in the city, ringed by the military. The residents of the city rallied to create their own government and militia and Paul and his colleagues translated for a few foreign reporters and photographers who managed to get into Gwangju. Paul’s first attempt to get out, to get to Seoul and inform the US Embassy as to the true nature of events in Gwangju, failed. His second attempt, over the hills to his village and then to Seoul, was successful, but harrowing. This memoir is the first by a foreign witness to the Gwangju Uprising. It is both a clear-eyed record of the events and a reflection of Paul’s emotional journey as the uprising went through its various twists and turns.

192 pages, Paperback

Published May 7, 2020

Reviews

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Courtright recalls what it was like to be in and around Gwangju the week of May 18th. He has published this book 40 years later as memoir. The writing style owes more to the art of memoir and travel memoir than to personal journal or academic analysis. The events that transpired are filtered through Paul's memories. Here are two passages to give an example of the writing style, which is dialogue-heavy, sensory, and image-laden:

"Why can't we go to Naju?" I asked, my voice hardening. I wanted to yell, "Why have you killed people in Gwangju?" but kept that question from exploding out of my mouth. The soldiers and the tanks scared the hell out of me and I knew Miss Kim must be terrified. The soldier continued to face us down. I wanted to snatch his sunglasses and grind them under my shoe."

And:

The flames died down quickly and the crowd started to sing the Korean national anthem, followed by a local protest song. The sound of ten thousand or more voices mesmerized me. Caught up in the mood of the moment, I had ignored Robin for the last ten to fifteen minutes. I glanced over him and realized that he was probably as mesmerized as I was. We both stood, watched, and listened, and felt the crowd.

The remembered experiences and conversations feel fresh, even written forty years later. These two weeks in May seem encapsulated in Courtright's memory with a vivid sense of import. This 160-page memoir felt like traveling through a portal to a living passage of time. There are many colorful characters, giving a sense of the diversity of Korean and non-Korean people and how they reacted to and participated in the events in Gwangju in May 1980. These include but are not limited to taxi drivers, parents of students, intellectual and student organizers, German journalists in need of translators, fellow Peace Corps members, caring Korean grandmothers, and stoic Korean men.

Courtright was a young Peace Corps Volunteer treating patients with leprosy in a stigmatized village at the time. His descriptions of biking and hiking in and out of the small village are lucid and remind me of doing the same thing in Korea in the early 2010s, although I never had to worry about soldiers pointing guns at me. The writer says he has written this in part to address some "unresolved psychological issues" through the act of writing. Violence committed upon people through military action is not something that occurs lightly. Where militant force results in death and violence, there is trauma. Courtright's account might not get to the bottom of why such events transpired, but it is an enriching story. In fact, it is quite a gem and succeeds in answering the request of several Gwangju women's requests to tell their story. In that sense, this is the author's response to that weight of responsibility.

There is a US Embassy cable of a missionary's account located in the book's annex, and preserved photographs from the author, photographer Robin Moyer, and journalist Jürgen Hinzpeter included in the book.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a striking memoir by virtue of how ordinary the author is. There really isn’t anything that makes him stand out, he was an average young person who ended up in Korea while trying to find himself on a Peace Corps assignment and didn’t really speak Korean, didn’t have a ton of real skills. He didn’t even live in Gwangju and did not witness any of the major events around the uprising, just the aftermath and the impact on the people of the region. There’s something so human about being adjacent to a major event that affects you so much despite not actually being a part of it. I think there’s a lot about that experience to explore. I wish I’d gotten a little more reflection from the author about his emotional and psychological state as he processed what he saw, especially since he was never able to process it through any official channels. Pull the uprising out entirely and it’s still a touching story of a young man becoming acquainted with a foreign culture in a very different time. I was touched by this account of being an average person who gets clipped by history, left in its wake to observe the pieces.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this gripping, well-written book, the author recounts his experience of the anti-government protests by students in Gwangju in South Korea in May 1980 and the
subsequent brutal violence against the students and others by government soldiers, including killings. The students were peacefully protesting against the overthrow of the democratically elected government.

The descriptions of the efforts by the students and others to resist the aggression of the government and their outrage at being treated so badly by those who were meant to
protect them are very moving.

In addition to acting as a witness to a very significant event in South Korea’s history, the author provides simply written, evocative descriptions of the mountains, countryside, forests, and village life.

This is a very interesting and important book, not the least because of the apparent long-standing denial by some in South Korea that the Gwangju massacre took place.

[Kaye Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

In May 2020, 40 years after the uprising at Gwangiu, South Koreans launched a Truth Commission to investigate the crackdown on protesters and the use of military force. What Courtwright witnessed in Gwangiu has transformed everything I thought that I knew about South Korea. I find myself questioning why there is so much history I have never heard of.

Gwangju is a huge social justice protest—a single event where over 2000 people died. As I followed Courtright's memory map about his traumatic experience those few days as a new Peace Corps volunteer, I was compelled to write down my own feelings and memory map to measure the shift in my thought process about the bumpy road of democracy. The parallel with violent reaction toward protestors across the United States in 2020 and the suppression of the democratic movement in South Korea forty years ago is unavoidable.

[Fiona James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew nothing about the tragic fate of many young students during the Gwangju uprising in 1980. Paul Courtright's re-telling of 5.18 bears witness to that but from the perspective of a young Peace Corps Volunteer struggling with fitting into a new culture, wanting to seem non political but also the very human desire to be of help. It's touching but also backed up with photos and governmental documents to remind us of the reality of what happened and how little was known outside of the country.

[Richard MacIntyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a very personal view of the crisis in South Korea in 1980 when the coup president sent fierce military forces to quell an uprising in the southern city of Gwangju. Tells the true story from a witness to the frantic lives of those who never expected this could happen...yet it did. Many innocent people lost their lives as they were fired upon, tortured, and beaten by their own nation's military.
Courtright's book doesn't tell much of what actually happened in the battles, but more how he and others actually began to realize what was happening. Added to the horror, one thing that bothered me most was the inability of the Peace Corps volunteers in the area to make any connection with the US embassy and staff about what they were witnessing. The final paragraph provides an example.
I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Korea about a dozen years before Courtright, and spent some time in the Gwangju area. His retelling all aspects about his life there is so very realistic.

[Guido Spring · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book I highly recomment as a first-hand account of the Gwangju uprising during the Korean dictatorship in 1980. Both personal and historically relevant. It reveals several aspects of the tragic way the uprising was smashed by the military. For instance the fact these military men came from another province. The Korean authorities announced a thorough investigation into the Gwangju crackdown in 2020. Hopefully the investigation will consult Paul Courtright. Everyone involved in Korea and the West should read this book.

[Gregory W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding read, interesting and compelling throughout. It's also a very important contribution to the literature on that difficult period in South Korea's history. I arrived in Korea as a Peace Corps Volunteer a couple of months before the events of Gwangju has taken place, and the tension in the air throughout the country was palpable. Dr. Courtright's book vividly describes that tragedy.

[Tessa Deignan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My uncle, Tim, is featured in this. He died while my mom was pregnant with me so I never met him but I heard stories about his empathy for people and his passion for doing the right thing. Reading about Tim in this book, even if it was just every so often, made me feel connected to him in a way I never had before.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible first hand experience of the uprising that happened in Gwangju, Korea in May 1980. This event has largely been hidden from history and it is time that it sees the light of day.

[Syntaxx · Rating 3 out of 5]

used this as part of my syllabus design assignment for HSTAS 482 A.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

An event I was not familiar with told in an interesting, informative manner.